Scrubbing up!

Hi all. Well as you can see below, I couldn't wait longer than a few days to get back on the bank side and the call of the lake was to strong to ignore! I ventured down for another very quick overnighter this week between work, which has been very brisk this week with the oncoming start to the old season. I get the feeling that the 16th may well be a bit of a let down for many with the majority of swims going to be taken before the big day even begins.

One of my pins on my new Ray Walton rod! Can't wait to use it now!

My gear is all scrubbed up ready to rock and roll with new 10lb braid on my gleaming new center pin reels....all 4 of them! Also got myself a new Ray Walton Rolling Rod as well. This looks stunning and I can't wait to have a bash with it. Feels incredibly light and forgiving too. Should do the job for a bit of light touch ledgering etc.

The weather has been very strange this last week or two. Neither hot or cold? Feeling at times more like Autumn rather than early summer. Wet, blustery and warm at times. Lets hope the warmer more steady conditions start to come in soon or I feel we may see summer come and go very quickly again. We had some excitement up our valley this week with the Welsh Air Ambulance visiting the scene of a poor fellow who had had a heart attack. Unfortunately I'm lead to believe the guy passed away leaving a family and grand kids behind. My sincerest condolences to the family.....

All excitement in our little valley!

The helicopter team made a real impact on valley life though by landing right in front of our house about 100m away behind the local shop! I took the opportunity to go and have a closer look with my camera and after a nice chat with the pilot. He asked me if i could do some pictures for him for the WAA to use for publicity! Here's one I took for them.


This weeks overnighter was interesting in that I have started to fish a slightly different swim to before and I'm now targeting the fish in more open water than that of previous sessions. The previous swim was rather tight and unforgiving, but this one is open and abodes more room for mistakes if needed. I wasn't sure whether the fish would take a bait in the new spots but it appears they're not as shy as I was led to believe. A good liberal baiting of Red X in two spots was enough to get a bit of interest going and within an hour of casting out, I was seeing the first signs of activity in the form of bubbles and liners.
It wasn't too long before the right hand rod was away and I found myself attached to a torpedo of a fish that wanted to plow through just about every weed bed it could muster up the ability to find! It took some epic rod bending and odd angles to get it free from the weeds and pads but eventually I sunk the net under a long chunky mirror. Unfortunately the same one I'd had a few weeks back from the other end of the lake but incredibly up in weight by over a pound to 24lb 9oz!

A repeat capture, but no less pleased to see the 'smelly fish' again and up in weight to 24lb 9oz!

Thankfully she didn't smell quite as bad as the last time I caught her a few weeks back! I grabbed a few quick pics and wished her farewell. The night progressed and around 4am as it was becoming light. I had a take on the left hand rod which can only be described as beyond belief! I don't think I have ever seen a take so fast from a carp! It was so violent that I did something I've not done since my teens.....I jumped from my sleeping bag without any foot ware on and flew over to the rod in the rain! This was fun as the swim is covered in tiny sharp stones which impaled my feet!

The fight was as ever brutal and she ran me ragged for a good few minutes. Just as I was thinking about grabbing the net to engulf her, the hook pulled free! I was devastated! I checked the hook to see that the point had turned over and become totally useless.....What bad luck. I can only think I must have plinked it during rigging up with the pva or it got pushed around on the bottom and blunted that way??? Who knows???

Right, that really is it from me until the 16th now as I have lots of bait to roll for customers, tackle to send out and a lot of other personal jobs to do before the river season commences.

Good luck to all of you that are venturing out this coming weekend and I wish you all the best.

Regards
Keith